


Handsy

by Prodigal_anon



Series: High School AU [3]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: High School AU, M/M, Tickling, Ticklish!Dean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-13
Updated: 2016-09-13
Packaged: 2018-08-14 21:31:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8029564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Prodigal_anon/pseuds/Prodigal_anon
Summary: Cas and Dean have a movie night and Cas makes his move.





	Handsy

Cas leans back in his chair and blinks up at the ceiling of his bedroom, letting his eyes settle on the gouge in the plaster – old damage, from the days when it was Gabriel’s and Balthazar’s room. Those had been wild days. Cas’s siblings have moved on for the most part, to college or jobs, though they still wander in and out of the family house regularly. For the most part, he enjoys the peace, and having most of the house to himself when not so long ago he’d been consigned to the couch. The near-constant quiet, though - it’s something he has to adjust to.

It’s a Sunday afternoon and he’s doing his homework, or trying to. Dean is coming over today and Cas finds it hard to concentrate in light of this, because today will be – special.

They’ve spent quite a lot of time together recently, in spite of Cas’s unceasing awkwardness. Actually, it’s gone smoother than he could have imagined, mainly due to Dean’s natural charisma and – easy-to-be-around-ness. It certainly isn’t due to Cas’s smooth skills at socializing. Sometimes it’s like he’s almost trying to sabotage himself – but Dean just laughs at each faux pas, a full-body laugh that is intoxicating. Cas finds himself staring, enraptured, as Dean’s body just goes helpless with mirth, completely amused by whatever Cas has said or done, until he finally recovers and looks up at Cas with tears in his green eyes, and sometimes is set off again by the look of blank confusion on Cas’s face.

(Cas has spent years perfecting that look, along with the slight tilt of the head. It’s worked on all his siblings and not a few professors. It’s the one thing he does that he knows for sure is cute and he’s going to use it to his advantage)

As Cas had guessed, Dean is in fact quite handsy. He makes it seem natural and effortless though. An easy hand to the elbow, a flick of thumb and forefinger to the temple, a nudge with the shoulder. Cas is pretty certain the constant touching is actually a need of Dean’s – he thinks Dean may be touch-starved. The longer he hangs out with Dean, the more he can see that Dean’s actually very isolated, in a way, in spite of being surrounded by so many people who like him. He’s only really close to Sam and Mr. Singer – and now Cas. So Dean is a very touchy-feely person but with no one to touch. 

Cas tries to accommodate this, first by hovering close by Dean to let him know that he was available for touching. He supplements this with what he intends to be meaningful looks, filled with permission to be open and friendly. This results in still another beautiful face from Dean as he bites his full and quivering lips in an attempt to hide his laughter, and amused jokes from Sam, Mr. Singer, Sheriff-Ms Mills, Charlie Bradbury, or anyone who happens to notice. Cas pouts about it but carries on doing it because, frankly, it seems to be working. 

Gradually he feels confident enough to return the touches – he spent two days working up the nerve to do it for the first time, and then it was an overly solemn, out-of-place hand to Dean’s shoulder in response to a casual question about pie. Sam had started laughing first, and then Dean dissolved into that full-body laugh before taking pity on Cas and his beet-red face and throwing him into a headlock, instructing Sam to start punching Cas, and all was resolved in a manly way.

Cas has improved since then. He’s become more natural at the touching and has even managed to pin Dean in a wrestling match – Dean often forgets that Cas grew up with the threat of wrestling matches from his much-older siblings, and he can hold his own. He’d gotten Dean down on the floor of the library and instructed Sam to come draw on his face before Sheriff Mills had rushed over to scold them and break them up.

So he’s more comfortable around Dean now, but today – is going to be different. Prior to today, every interaction they’ve had has been either public or with Sam present. Cas is quite fond of Sam, and he knows that this is a large part of the reason why Dean has allowed him into their circle. But as sweet as the kid is, Cas thinks he has more of… call it a “profound bond” with Dean. And today, Sam’s class is on a weekend trip to St. Joseph and Dean is coming over and they’ll be alone. 

He feels unprepared for this confrontation and resigned to the certainty that he’ll say or do the wrong thing again. Hopefully it will come across as charming when it does happen.

Well. At any rate, no good will come of sitting up here agonizing about it. Cas gets up, abandoning his homework (not that he’d been doing much with it anyway in favor of worrying), and goes downstairs to prepare dinner.

——————–

An hour later, he’s sitting on the couch agonizing about it, a book in his lap, forgotten. He jumps, startled, when he hears a solid banging on the door, and dithers briefly as he wonders if his outfit is okay (he’s wearing flannel with jeans – good choice, or bad?) and finally opens the door to see Dean grinning at him, Baby parked in the driveway next to Gabriel’s 1989 Beetle that he won’t let anyone get rid of. Dean’s got a backpack slung over one shoulder, which looks weird on him as he normally disdains such a thing at school.

Dean gives him a wink. “Hey Cas. Like the threads. Gonna let me in?”

Cas’s face breaks out in a grin; he can’t help it. “Hello Dean. Thank you. Um, yes – please come in. 

Dean steps past him, looking around. “So this is Cas’s lair? Where all the evil plans get hatched?”

“I don’t have any evil plans for you, Dean.” As he finishes saying it he realizes it sounds suggestive and flushes he fidgets with his shirt.

Dean chuckles and pretends to pout. “Aw, Cas. And here I drove all this way.” He messes up Cas’s hair and lets his bag drop to the floor heavily. He follows it and unzips it, looking around inside. It seems to be mostly DVDs, as well as loose sweatpants which means he’s staying the night??? Did they agree to that? Cas can’t even remember, but evil plans are beginning to form in Cas’s brain against his will.

Dean holds up a battered DVD case which, to judge from the scrap of sticker clinging to it, may or may not have been stolen from a rental store. The cover features the silhouette of a man whose head seems to be exploding with light. “Seen this? It’s called… THE THING. John Carpenter. Classic. I have you pegged as a total sissy who makes adorable scared noises so I brought every scary movie I could find, and we’re gonna watch them ALL.” 

Cas pulls a face while inwardly he’s coming up with even more evil plans. “Please. I’m pretty sure that nothing you have in that bag is going to scare me, Dean.”

Dean smirks patronizingly. “We’ll see. Don’t worry though, I’ll be here to hold you when you realize this is the real shit.” He winks again and stands up. “I smell pizza – sounds like you already called ahead and ordered it? Way to be prepared, Boy Scout.”

“No, I made it,” Cas states as he goes to the kitchen; the pizza is in fact warming in the oven.

“Oh, like DiGiorno’s?” Dean grabs his bag and follows Cas.

“Er…no. I made it. With the crust? And sauce? I find I prefer the taste. Less grease.”

Dean’s stopped and is staring at Cas as though he’s an alien creature. “Like… you made it yourself? From scratch?”

Cas opens the oven to pull out the large-size pizza loaded with everything Dean has often specified is required to be on a pizza: pepperoni, sausage, ham, peppers, olives, and extra cheese. “Yes. Hopefully it pleases Your Majesty.” 

Dean snorts and throws a nearby potholder at Cas’s butt. “Snarky little shit. Yeah, I’m sure it’ll be great. But look, please just tell me if you actually made like, the crust and sauce yourself? And grew the peppers in your own little garden?”

“Yes. And I also slaughtered the cow and pig for the meats and gathered olives from our orchard. And ground the flour in a stone pestle.” Cas begins slicing the pizza. “There’s Coke in the fridge, which I had no part in creating, I only bought it from the gas station.” 

Dean’s grinning widely, that special grin that Cas worked so hard to earn, and holds up his hands in mock defeat as he backs towards the refrigerator. “If anyone had told me earlier that cute little baby Cas was such a sassmaster, I’d have told them they were crazy. Never would have guessed it of you, man.”

Cas tries not to fixate on the fact that Dean called him cute, and fails, blushing.

——–

Several hours later, they’ve gone through the pizza, any additional junk food that Dean brought or that was in the kitchen, and they’ve seen three classic horror movies that did not faze Cas in the least. Dean looks disappointed and is pouting slightly. Cas is aggravating him by pretending to inspect his fingernails while the lead actress screams in terror on the screen.

“Come on! I know you jumped a little when he went Full Fly!” Dean shoves Cas’s shoulder. 

Cas shoves back. “Not in the slightest. Balthazar made me watch Cannibal Massacre when I was ten and I got all my fear of anything over with in one very miserable month afterwards. Scary movies don’t affect me at all after that.”

Dean scowls and (lightly) kicks Cas’s shin with his socked foot. “Oh, okay, so you were cheating!”

Cas returns the kick. “It’s not cheating if I’m just tougher than you, Winchester.”

Dean throws an empty plastic soda bottle at his head; it bounces off and rolls away. “Um, no. I am the toughest guy in the school. Ask anybody.”

Cas doesn’t have a soda bottle near at hand so he pokes Dean’s ribs instead. “Can’t be so tough if you thought those were –“ he trails off in astonishment as Dean just – collapses, giggling and pulling his arms in tight around him protectively. 

There’s a long pause. Cas finally speaks after a moment, in a slow voice of realization. “Dean…? What was that?”

Dean is blushing, furiously and impossibly, red on every visible inch of skin, freckles standing out dark on his face. “Nothing, man, it was nothing. Shut up.”

Cas shifts slightly on the couch. Dean leans away, hiding his face in his shoulder and still hugging himself. “Pretty sure that wasn’t “nothing,” Dean.” 

“Shut up. Go away. You’re making shit up.” Dean’s voice is muffled into his T-shirt and the flesh of his shoulder. 

Cas is starting to grin, carefully shifting his legs so that he’s facing towards Dean. “Dean… are you ticklish?”

Dean says nothing in response but a muffled giggle pierces the air, sweet and musical and the cutest thing Cas has ever heard in his life.

“No way. No way!” Cas is shaking his head and grinning wide enough to make his cheeks hurt. He reaches over with the index fingers on both hands outstretched, poking into either side of Dean’s ribcage, and watches in delight as Dean almost jumps out of his skin.

“Sh-shit! Don’t you dare, Cas, I swear I’ll-ah!!” 

Cas wastes no more time, throwing himself on top of Dean and shoving him back down onto the couch, and using everything he’s ever learned from Balthazar and Gabriel to twist Dean around underneath him. Cas quickly straddles him, shoving Dean’s arms back and underneath and wrapping his legs under Dean’s torso to trap them there.

(This is made considerably easier by the fact that Dean isn’t putting up much more than a token resistance. Interesting)

Once Cas is satisfied with their positioning, he grins predatorily down at Dean and wriggles his fingers theatrically, thrilled to see Dean shiver and squirm, blush intensifying. Cas begins poking lightly here and there, watching Dean twitch violently each time, giggling helplessly already.

“So. Toughest guy in the school? Is that what you said?” Cas makes his voice as infuriatingly casual as he can. “Let’s see about that, shall we?” 

He begins wiggling his fingers up and down Dean’s ribcage, and the results are immediate and amazing. Dean begins laughing wildly immediately, squirming and trying to pull his arms away, but Cas has them locked behind his back. 

Cas is delighted to see he’s got Dean trapped and begins to gleefully taunt him, while shifting his focus up to his underarms. 

“Aww, does that really tickle, Dean? Tough guy’s pretty ticklish, aren’t you? Let’s see, here’s a good spot, and right here, and right here – wow, Dean, is there any place you’re not ticklish?”  
He gives Dean a moment to breathe, smirking down at him as his chest heaves. Dean keeps trying to hide his face in his own shoulders or in the couch but can’t quite reach. It’s endearing. 

Cas waits until Dean has air enough to finally say “Cas, you son of a bitch – “ before he renews his efforts, pulling Dean’s shirt up just enough that he can skitter his blunt fingernails over Dean’s bare belly, making himshriek. Dean’s tossing his head back and forth and howling laughter, hysterical and uninhibited and beautiful.

Cas carries on the one-sided conversation over Dean’s wild hilarity. “This is like Christmas and my birthday all at once. Got the toughest guy in school, right here where I want him. This is really driving you crazy, isn’t it, Dean? Me tickling you like this? And you can’t do anything about it?”

He reaches behind him to squeeze Dean’s knees and thighs, laughing at the thrashing that results. “There’s got to be a sweet spot though, right? Where is it, Dean? Let’s see, where haven’t I tickled you yet…”

His fingers scrape up Dean’s sides and around over his belly and down, lower, just over the edge of his hips, and Dean finally screams and thrashes hard enough to throw them both off the couch in a pile on the floor.

Cas takes that to be the natural end of the tickle fight, and slumps over Dean, snickering at him. “That was fun! We should do it again!” 

Dean tries to scowl but the grin is still wide on his face. With his now-freed hands, he manages to weakly smack Cas on the arm, and Cas lets him. He taps his chin thoughtfully as he watches Dean run his hands over his face, still giggling lightly. 

“Hmm. Now I’ve got a problem. I can’t decide if I should tell the world this beautiful news, that Dean “tough guy” Winchester is ridiculously ticklish, or if I should just let it be my private secret. Because, you know, if I tell people, then I’ll have the fun of watching everyone in the school start tickling you, and you know they will! Everyone’s going to want to tickle you every chance they get, you’ll never catch a break, and I’ll get to hear that cute little giggle all the time.”

Dean is groaning and wriggling every time Cas says the word “tickle,” to his amusement, and he vows to start dropping the word into everyday conversation more often. “Cas, noooo… I don’t giggle, man…”

He grins. “The cutest giggle ever heard! But then again, maybe it would be better to keep that as a little secret for myself. To know that I have the power to reduce you to a puddle of gloop and squirming helpless giggles any time I want, with just a few little tickles.” He draws a finger over the socked sole of Dean’s foot for emphasis and watches it jerk away.

Dean groans again, louder. “You’re the worst boyfriend ever.”

Cas drops the smug teasing in his surprise. “Is that – really what we are?”

Dean blinks back at him in surprise. “Uh – yeah. Weren’t we? Wasn’t that what all this was?”

Cas rolls his eyes. “You’re asking me? I have like, no concept of all this social… stuff. I mean. If you’re saying you thought we were… then, I would like that. Right? That’s what you’re saying? That we’re – um.” There’s a silence and Dean’s shoulders are shaking. “Well. I guess… all of that… isn’t something that bros do, is it.”

Dean shakes his head, lips threatening to smile. “I’d assumed that was your end goal. Since you had such a huge crush on me.”

Cas blushes and attempts to look cool. “I did not – “

Dean’s laughing again, twisting over slightly in a way that tugs his shirt up and reveals a smooth patch of flesh from hip to ribcage. He’s doing it on purpose, Cas realizes. “Cas, don’t even try to deny it!! It was so obvious! Everyone knows. You were – oh man, when you showed up at Bobby’s with that stack of junk – and how you always stand like, three inches away from me, dude, you’re such an obvious, adorable little dork – ah-ha-HAH!” 

Cas has the satisfaction of hearing Dean’s voice climb rapidly into a surprised squeal as he flops heavily on top of him and starts tickling that exposed patch rapidly. “Some nerve, calling me a little dork, when you’re the one wriggling around like a cute, ticklish little kid!” he growls, flicking his fingers faster and grinning a little wickedly at the noises coming from the red-faced mess beneath him.

“Ca-ha-ha-haaas, eeeheeHEEheehehaha, st-st-stah!!” Dean manages to blurt out, before collapsing again onto the couch and (again) not trying very hard to get away.

“Oh man, dude, so cute!” Cas does his best impression of Dean’s voice, which makes Dean laugh harder. Unless it’s because Cas is now slipping his fingers around to torment the slight pudge of his belly. “Look at you, you must be the most ticklish guy alive! Aww, is this torture? Am I driving you craaaazy?” 

Dean’s wheezing, eyes scrunched shut and mouth locked into a laughing grin. Cas eases up, poking at Dean’s ribs and belly just enough to make him twitch and squirm while he catches his breath. “Tell you what, Dean. I’ll stop. Right now, you can make it all stop – if you want me to. Just say the word.”

There’s an embarrassed, almost shy silence from Dean, completely unprecedented from him, and Cas’s eyes light up even as his grin softens a little at the edges. “Uh huh. Thought so. Well lucky for you, I don’t think I’m ever gonna get tired of hearing that sweet, adorable little giggle of yours – right, that giggle you make when I dothis – “ Cas’s fingers are up under Dean’s arms and the noise he makes is musical, lovely and happy. “And if you want me to stop, first you have to say that you’re super ridiculously ticklish!”

Dean’s face is red and he wriggles ineffectively under Cas, who’s pleased to see it and pleased to be in charge. Two days till Sam comes back? This weekend’s going to be great.


End file.
